Antec High Current Pro 1200W Power Supply Review

Antec serves up "raw" power with its newest High Current Pro 1200 watt computer power supply. Antec claims 80 Plus Gold certification along with gold plated terminals and a special heavy-gauge 16 AWG CPU power cable. This is the new flagship PSU for Antec, let's see if possibly survives the HardOCP gauntlet.

Introduction

One of the most prevalent companies in the consumer power supply realm, and general enthusiast PC realm, is Antec. Antec is a company that has been kicking around the PC DIY market since 1986 and in that time frame has become one of its most widely known brand names. In addition to power supplies Antec has product lines that include cases for work and play, cooling solutions, lighting, and other accessories. Over the years Antec has used a number of OEM providers for their power supplies including HEC, CWT, FSP, Enhance, Seasonic, and recently Delta. Some of the older Antec/CWT solutions were notorious for being plagued by the "Fuhjiyyu sudden death syndrome," but in the last couple of years or so Antec has dropped these older designs in favor of new products. Today we will be looking at an offering from Antec that comes from Delta once more, in the Antec High Current Pro 1200W (HCP-1200).

Delta Electronics Inc is part of the Delta Group and is one of the older presences in the power market in Taiwan as the Delta Group was founded in 1971. As an OEM Delta has been popular among higher end server solutions and for a selection of prebuilt PCs from major worldwide consumer PC OEMs for many years but rarely has Delta shown up in enthusiast applications. Currently, Delta claims the title of the world's largest supplier of switching power supplies. However, even with a lack of presence in the power supply side of the DIY market Delta is still certainly a known commodity as most enthusiast users have certainly encountered their fans at one point or another. Today’s review of the Antec HCP-1200 gives us our third look at a Delta-based offering branded by Antec.

Pro, or Joe?

The Antec HCP-1200 is the lead product in Antec's new High Current Pro line of power supplies and for us it is the sixth power supply from Antec that we have had cross our review bench. The first Antec branded Delta unit we saw was SG-850 and the HCP-1200 seems to be the spiritual, if not outright, successor to that unit. Now at 1200 watts the HCP-1200 is the largest capacity unit we have reviewed from Antec to date, and while all of its offerings have been good to excellent that we have reviewed, none have been as ambitious as this unit when it comes down to capacity. With such a prestigious position at the top of Antec's premium offerings in play today what does Antec have to say about the HCP-1200?

Antec's HCP-1200 unifies raw power with advanced PSU engineering to meet the demands of high performing PCs. A full-featured, 80 PLUSآ® Gold-certified unit, HCP-1200 is capable of outputting 99 percent of its rated power on its eight +12V rails, which contain high maximum loads to ensure graphics card compatibility. Exclusive to the High Current series, HCP-1200 boasts High Current heavy-gauge 16 AWG wiring that reduces conducted resistance, increasing efficiency and improving power delivery. In addition, a cool-running dual double-layer PCB and onboard DC to DC converters provide substantial voltage stability. To experience kilowatt-class power in an unmatched design, pick up Antec's HCP-1200. ion and mission-critical server applications.

Moving on let’s see what we can expect when a user purchases the Antec HCP-1200 power supply in retail in terms of documentation, accessories, cable count, rail layout, output characteristics, and general build quality.